根据《全国大学英语四、六级考试改革方案(试行)》, 2006 年 6 月起的四级考试将全面进行改革。就其听力部分而言,主要变化体现在对话部分由原来的 10 题短对话改为 8 题短对话加 7 题长对话的形式;其次,听写部分也做了微调,由原来的 7 个单词加 3 个句子的考试形式变为 8 个单词加 3 个句子的形式;最后,题量方面篇章类的题目由原来的段子题和听写二选一考察的形式改为两者皆考的形式。以上三点变化使听力总题量从原来的 20 题增加到 36 题( 8 题短对话、 7 题长对话、 10 题段子题以及 11 题听写题),分值从原来的 20% 上升到 35% ,时间从原来的 20 分钟加长至 35 分钟。
本文根据全国大学英语四、六级考试改革项目组和考试委员会设计的《四级考试新题型试测卷》(以下称《样卷》),就以上四个方面分别谈一下其技巧与学习方法,尤其着重突出改革后新增的长对话部分的题型特点与应对策略。
短对话一直以来都是四级考试中最有规律也最易提高的一个部分,这主要是因为对话本身必须兼顾文化背景常识与语言考察点两个部分,所以考试时既不会出两人见面问候“吃了没”这样不符合文化背景的题目,也鲜见直接对 yes, no 这样简单单词提问的没有任何考察难度的题目。正是出于这两点考虑,加之为了保证考试成绩的公正性与平衡性,四级考试的短对话部分产生了一些固有的套路和思维模式。
《样卷》中所举 8 题短对话完全取自于以往四级考试真题,由此可见,以往四级短对话的技巧与学习方法依然适用于新四级的考试。根据近年出题思路与喜好偏向,我们不难发现,就考点而言,近年的短对话出题主要集中在以下五个方面:
原因考察 ,如 05 年 6 月第 6 题:
W: Bob said that Seattle is a great place for conferences.
M: He is certainly in the position to make that comment. He has been there so often.
Q: What does the man say about?
本题考察的划线部分实际为前一句的原因阐述,因此成为考察重点。
建议句型 ,如 05 年 12 月第 1 题:
W: Carol told us on the phone not to worry about her. Her left leg doesn’t hurt as much as it did yesterday.
M: She’d better have it examined by a doctor anyway. And I’ll call her about it this evening.
Q: What does the man think Carol should do?
本题中男人用 had better 一词表达了建议的内容,从而使之成为考察重点。
反问句式 ,如 05 年 6 月第 5 题:
W: I just read in the newspaper that Lord of the Rings is this year’s greatest hit. Why don’t we go and see it at the Grand Cinema?
M: Don’t you think that cinema is a little out of the way?
Q: What does the man mean?
本题中连续两个反问句式,前者表达了女人的建议,后者则表达了男人的言外之意,所以反问句式是个多功能的表达方式。
转折变化 ,如 05 年 12 月第 3 题:
M: Hi, Melissa, how’s your project going? Have you thought about going to graduate school? Perhaps you can get into Harvard.
W: Everything is coming along really well. I’ve been thinking about graduate school. But I’ll talk to my tutor Dr. Garcia first and see what she thinks.
Q: What do we learn about the woman from the conversation?
本题中句子相对比较长,但重点却非常突出地表现在转折之后。
场景考察 ,如05年6月第9题:
W: Wow, I do like this campus. All the big trees, the green lawns, and the old buildings with tall columns. It’s really beautiful.
M: It sure is. The architecture of these buildings is in the Greek style. It was popular in the 18th century here.
Q: What are the speakers talking about?